Tifa hated ghostly monsters, and judging by the way this one kept trying to claw her face off, the feeling was mutual. It vanished away as they often did, meaning her effort to punch it (surprisingly effective when they were semi-corporeal, but not as effective as magic) meant she simply put another dent in the wreckage of the haunted scrapyard.

"Just had to waste mana on a big fire spell, didn't you, Lockheart," she admonished herself.

Sure, the fireball had removed a few ghosts. But lower level ones all around would have been enough to weaken. Now she had a full strength ghost to fight with nothing but her fists.

On top of that it seemed odd. The spectral claws usually had an icy aura around them but this one, the claw's glow seemed something different. There didn't seem to be any coldness, no mists drifting off the frozen claw.

She kept her ears open and watched all around, knowing the ghost would try to sneak behind and attack. A loud noise drew her attention and she realised, a second too late, it was just the metal she'd punched popping back into place a little.

And the ghost took the chance, the odd claw swiping right through her stomach.

"Gha!"

She felt not the chill of an ice element, but an odd warmth. Smoke and mist, sparkling with magical energies, began to spread from the 'wound' of sorts, and she found herself losing balance as her entire body tingled. And shifted. It reminded her somewhat of the way some monsters could transform people into frogs, something she had suffered once or twice in the Midgar sewers and beyond. But rather than smaller and slimy, she felt like she was getting bigger, remaining warm blooded....

She felt herself getting taller, and realised with some surprise her rapid growth was causing her waist to widen too much for her skirt. The belt dug in and her suspenders snapped before the leather miniskirt's material lost the battle, a pop signalling the skirt ripping away. Her tight socks and gloves too fared poorly from the feel and sound of it, the fabric just not able to contain however her limbs had stretched

Still dazed and blinded by all the smoke around her, Tifa realised some things felt very strange now. A looseness at her chest and a tightness at her crotch, an unpleasant sensation of nerves and bodyparts shifting and shrinking rapidly. The smoke cleared, and she heard herself gasping in a far deeper voice than normal as she looked down.... At himself.

The ghost's blow had somehow been able to cause gender changes, like a transformation. The changes so rapid that it had indeed destroyed the skirt, the leather and the snapped suspenders on the floor, and there were huge tears in the once tight fitting gloves and socks on expanded limbs. Her prior self had been muscular enough, but now the male equivalent seemed wider in many spots. Thicker arms and legs, more pronounced abs, and with it considerable damage or strain on clothes sized for a smaller form.

Fortunately for Tifa, the underskirt shorts were a stretchy material and his newly male hips were not a whole lot wider than their prior feminine form, but unfortunately, the clothing on the lower half had been very much intended for certain appendages not being there. What lay below the now rather stretched out shorts had been tight, now, the waistband and elastic dug in, and his unexpected new addition was rather compressed below cotton and spandex.

Up top, there had been some looseness, but now the chest's main dimensions were a broad side to side, not the main direction of size the sports bra and white shirt had been built around. As a result the garments were straining at the sides and back thanks to a muscular male upper torso suddenly in then, and hanging loose where there had once been a generous pair of mammaries to contain moments before. At least her/his hair hadn't fallen out or anything, but the long black dolphin tail felt a little... less soft, somehow, like the hair was thicker too.

The ghost floated nearby as if taunting the genderswapped martial artist, who felt a stir of rage, leaping up and letting loose a kick. The ghost's spectral eyes widened, but it could not evade, and the hit was powerful enough to finish it off, the apparition wisping away in defeat.

Tifa learned two things though. One, his boots were too small, and had just ripped when he kicked. Two, the waistband below the stretchy shorts digging in had just snapped as well as having managed to give himself some rather painful pressure in unwelcome spots.

"Agh! Ow, that's not nice at all.... I do not like having dangly bits," she groaned, and then as the shock, anger, and some of the pain faded, felt his cheeks warm up.

"....I've been turned into a guy. In just really tight shorts. With my panties just having torn inside them."

Tifa looked down and felt the blush intensify as she noted precisely why tightness was an issue. Hopefully it wore off soon and some adjustments could be made, but.

"Tifa? Are you there?" A familiar voice asked.

But... higher pitched?

A shape came over some scrap, a large sword slung over the back and wearing the expected dark blue jumpsuit, with the expected spiky chocobo-butt hairstyle, and the mako-tinged blue eyes. But unexpected was the fact Cloud was barefoot, the jumpsuit was a lot looser at some spots, but up top, two rather large new spots had emerged and strained against the woolen-like sleeveless shirt portion.

"C-Cloud?!" Tifa asked, voice back to a more normal pitch in surprise.

"Yeah, it's me... Guess one of those ghosts got you too?" Cloud said.

Tifa looked over the man-turned-woman, and started to regret it as the transformed body reacted at the very pretty sight.

"Uh... y-yeah," she replied and tried to cover up the crotch that had elected to go rogue....

Cloud didn't miss this, and a hint of a smirk passed her features as she grabbed at a rust-stained tarpaulin on some scrap. Mako-enhanced power in her slightly thinner arms helped her rip off a generous portion, and then tear it in two. One half was tossed at Tifa, while Cloud fashioned a poncho for herself.

"Think it might an idea we covered up our... distracting parts until this wears off. Besides, looks like your gear got the bad end of the bargain when you got clawed."

"Thanks... You're sure this will wear off?" Tifa said, wrapping the cloth around the waist as a makeshift skirt... kilt... sarong... whatever!

Tifa also found it slightly frustrating the changes, though they hadn't caused her/his body to get a whole lot taller or larger overall, still threw off muscle memory, so even that simple task felt off, as did movement, like a foot should have landed a few inches differently, the brain not used to altered proportions yet.

"It's a transformation effect, they usually wear off after a while, and if not, we just get a esuna or something. We can worry later, there's still more ghosts around and the others to find," the blonde shrugged.

Tifa paused, noting that Cloud's movements seemed a little off as well, like perhaps the opposite issue applied, his/her brain used to a slightly larger body and confused when the smaller available parts didn't seem to move quite as far. And then Tifa also realised, the others were in this scrapyard with odd ghosts.

"...What if they got Aerith? Or Barret?"

Cloud raised a brow.

"...What if they got Red? Or Yuffie?"

Tifa considered the Wutaian ninja.

"...Hopefully they did get her, maybe she won't laugh his ass off?"

(As it happened, it wore off about thirty minutes later. After finding Yuffie, who had not been affected. And did laugh her ass off, but mainly at Barret and Red, who had been affected. Aerith, for her part, had dodged the ghosts too.... And kept her amusement more hidden. But not too hidden.)

"So what was it like being the only guy in the group for a while, Tifa?"

"Bite me, Gainsborough," Tifa replied in the inn later that night, away from strange ghosts, back in a female body, and trying to repair her damaged clothes as much as she could....